Integrating Ontology-Based and Game-Based Approaches to Business Model Innovation Tools for Smart Industry

Business model innovation (BMI) in smart industry contexts requires tools that simultaneously provide analytical rigor for modeling multi-actor value networks and collaborative engagement for facilitating cross-organizational innovation. Current BMI tools force practitioners to choose: ontology-based tools (e.g., e3-value) deliver formal semantic precision but are difficult for non-experts to use, while game-based tools drive stakeholder collaboration but lack methodological foundations for developing and validating business model configurations.
This extended abstract presents an early-stage PhD research design employing Action Design Research (ADR) methodology to develop GAMBIT (Game And Modeling Based Innovation Toolkit), an integrated approach that bridges this gap. The research is grounded in a completed systematic literature review of ontology-based and game-based BMI tools, and preliminary empirical findings from facilitated e3-value modeling workshops with manufacturing SMEs in the Dutch NXTGEN HIGHTECH program.
Stage 1 (Problem Formulation) findings demonstrate that e3-value’s formal constructs are accessible to practitioners when delivered through tangible, facilitated approaches, while also revealing representational boundaries that delineate the scope of ontology-based tools within broader business ecosystem considerations.
This submission outlines the theoretical foundations, methodological approach, preliminary findings, and expected contributions of the doctoral project, with particular focus on the transition from problem formulation to the iterative build-intervene-evaluate cycles that will produce design knowledge for integrated BMI tools.